Air France safety panel begins review

27 January, 2010

SOURCE: Air Transport Intelligence news

BY: John Croft

Washington DC

An eight member safety panel hired by Air France to perform an extensive review of the airline's safety practices will begin key interviews with company officials next week at the airline's home base in Paris, a source close to the group tells ATI.

Headed by former Boeing human factors expert Curt Graeber, the group also includes former FAA associate administrator for safety, Nicholas Sabatini, Qantas head of safety Geoff Sartori and Ohio State automation expert David Woods.

Next week's meeting, the second for the group, is to include interviews to gather details on the safety culture within the airline, following up from a two day kickoff meeting in December where the experts defined their strategy for the year-long effort.

Though launched in the wake of the mysterious loss of an Air France A330 over the Atlantic in June, the team is not charged with studying the accident.

Air France instead launched the independent review in early December to obtain an in-depth assessment of its company in terms of operations, safety management and reliability.

"This safety review will cover all internal operating methods, decision-making processes and practices which could have an impact on the safety of Air France's flights," the carrier has previously said.